Banks provide most of the credit our economy needs by making loans to enterprises, individuals and governments. Banks also accept discount on promissory notes, witch is another form of bank loan. In some developed countries and regions, the discount of many kinds of notes including commercial bills of exchange, bank cashier's checks and government notes has become one of the important instrument of short-term financing and bank loan making.银行通过向企业、个人和政府发放贷款，提供我国国民经济所需的大部分信贷资金。银行也办理票据贴现业务，这是银行贷款的另一种形式。在一些发达国家和地区，许多不同类型的票据，包括商业汇票、银行本票及政府票据的贴现已经成为短期融资和银行发放贷款的重要工具之一。　The interest that borrowers pay for their loans or for their notes discounted forms the major source of banks' income. Lending money is, therefore, banks' main business. Where does the money loaned come from? It belongs to the banks' depositors.借款人支付贷款或贴现票据的利息形成了银行主要收入的来源。所以，贷放资金是银行的主要业务。那么，银行贷款的资金是从哪里来的呢？它属于银行存款人的。　A bank must always keep enough cash on hand to pay its withdrawals. But it is unlikely that all depositors of a bank would withdraw their money at the same time. Also, while some are making withdrawals, others are making deposits. The money deposited each day is usually more than enough to cover all withdrawals. This means that a bank needs to keep on hand only a small portion of its total deposits. The rest can be used to make loans or accept discount. In this way, banks keep the circulation of money to meet the needs of our economy.一家银行必须持有充足的资金头寸，以备提款。但是，银行所有的存款户在同一时间内提取存款，这是不大可能的。一些人取款，而另一些人则存款，每天存入的金额往往足以支付提取的金额。这就是说，一家银行只需持有存款总额中的一小部分，剩余的资金可用于发放贷款或办理票据贴现。这样，银行使货币保持流通，以满足我国国民经济的需要。